Minutes of 928 th Meeting of the Town Planning Board held on 16.1.2009 Present Permanent Secretary for Development Chairman (Planning and Lands) Mr. Raymond Young Dr. Greg C.Y. Wong Vice-chairman Mr. Nelson W.Y. Chan Mr. Leslie H.C. Chen Professor David Dudgeon Mr. Tony C.N. Kan Dr. C.N. Ng Dr. Daniel B.M. To Mr. Stanley Y.F. Wong Ms. Sylvia S.F. Yau Mr. B.W. Chan Mr. Walter K.L. Chan Ms. Maggie M.K. Chan Mr. Raymond Y.M. Chan Mr. Y.K. Cheng - 2 - Mr. Felix W. Fong Ms. Anna S.Y. Kwong Dr. James C.W. Lau Mr. Rock C.N. Chen Mr. Timothy K.W. Ma Principal Assistant Secretary (Transport) Transport and Housing Bureau Mr. Tony Lam Deputy Director Environmental Protection Department Mr. Benny Wong Assistant Director (2), Home Affairs Department Mr. Andrew Tsang Director of Lands Miss Annie Tam Director of Planning Mrs. Ava S.Y. Ng Deputy Director of Planning/District Secretary Miss Ophelia Y.S. Wong Absent with Apologies Mr. David W.M. Chan Professor N.K. Leung Mr. Edmund K.H. Leung Professor Bernard V.W.F. Lim Mr. Alfred Donald Yap Professor Paul K.S. Lam Ms. Starry W.K. Lee Mr. K.Y. Leung Professor Edwin H.W. Chan - 3 - Dr. Ellen Y.Y. Lau Mr. Maurice W.M. Lee Dr. Winnie S.M. Tang In Attendance Assistant Director of Planning/Board (Atg.) Ms. Christine K.C. Tse Chief Town Planner/Town Planning Board (Atg.) Mr. Ivan M.K. Chung Senior Town Planner/Town Planning Board Ms. Maggie M.Y. Chin - 4 - Agenda Item 1 [Open Meeting] Confirmation of Minutes of the 927 th Meeting held on 2.1.2009 [The meeting was conducted in Cantonese.] 1. The minutes of the 927 th meeting held on 2.1.2009 were confirmed without amendment. Agenda Item 2 Matters Arising [Open Meeting] [The meeting was conducted in Cantonese.] Approval of Draft Outline Zoning Plans (OZPs) 2. The Secretary reported that on 13.1.2009, the Chief Executive in Council (CE in C) approved the following draft OZPs under section (9)(1)(a) of the Town Planning Ordinance: - Tai Po OZP (to be renumbered as S/TP/21) - Ha Tsuen OZP (to be renumbered as S/YL-HT/10) 3. The approval of the above draft OZPs would be notified in the Gazette on 23.1.2009. - 5 - [Mr. Nelson W.Y. Chan, Miss Annie Tam, Ms. Maggie M.K. Chan, Dr. Daniel B.M. To and Professor David Dudgeon arrived to join the meeting at this point.] Agenda Item 3 [Open Meeting (Presentation and Question Session only)] Consideration of Representations and Comments in Respect of Draft Ma Wan Outline Zoning Plan No. S/I-MWI/13 (TPB Paper No. 8285) [The meeting was conducted in Cantonese.] 4. The Secretary reported that the following Members had declared interests on this item: Dr. Greg C.Y. Wong ] Mr. Alfred Donald Yap ] had current business dealings with Mr. Y.K. Cheng ] Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. (SHK) Mr. Raymond Y.M. Chan ] Mr. Felix W. Fong ] Mr. David W.M. Chan Chairman of the Traffic and Transport Committee of Tsuen Wan District Council 5. Members noted that Mr. Alfred Donald Yap and Mr. David W. M. Chan had tendered apologies for not attending the meeting. Dr. Greg C.Y. Wong, Mr. Y.K. Cheng, Mr. Raymond Y.M. Chan and Mr. Felix W. Wong had not yet arrived to join the meeting at this point. 6. The following representatives from Government departments were invited to the meeting at this point: Ms. Heidi Chan District Planning Officer/Tsuen Wan and West Kowloon (DPO/TKW), Planning Department (PlanD) - 6 - Mrs. Lily Lam Wai Lan Principal Transport Officer/New Territories, Transport Department (TD) Mr. Raymond Chung Wah Senior Engineer/Tsuen Wan, TD Fan Ms. Alice Tam Pui Wah Senior Transport Officer/Tsuen Wan, TD 7. The following commenters and commenters’ representatives were invited to the meeting: C3, C4, C15, C16, C17 and C19 Mr. Lam Wai Man - Commenters’ representative C5 Mr. Tommy H.Y. Tsang - Commenter’s representative C6 Ms. Loletta Lau - Commenter C7 Mr. Lam Po Chuen, Patrick - Commenter and representative of C14 C13 Mr. Lai Wai Hung - Commenter C14 Mr. Lam Po Chuen, Patrick - Commenter’s representatives Mr. Ringo Yeung 8. Members noted that sufficient notice had been given to the representers and the remaining commenters. Some did not respond to the notice and some could not be contacted. For those who had responded, they indicated that they would not attend or be represented at the hearing. Members agreed to proceed with the hearing in the absence of the representers and the remaining commenters. - 7 - 9. The Chairman extended a welcome and briefly explained the procedures of the hearing. He then invited Ms. Heidi Chan, DPO/TWK, to brief Members on the background to the representations and comments. 10. With the aid of a Powerpoint presentation, Ms. Heidi Chan, DPO/TWK, briefed Members on the Paper and made the following points: (a) the background of the amendments to the Ma Wan OZP was detailed in paragraph 1 of the Paper. The key points were: - on 1.8.2008, the draft Ma Wan OZP No. S/I-MWI/13, incorporating mainly the following two amendments, was exhibited for public inspection: i) paragraph 9.2 of the Explanatory Statement (ES) was revised from “Ferry services is the major means of transport to and from the island. New developments on the island should maintain a transport arrangement with a 75% : 25% ratio between sea and road patronage to avoid overloading the Lantau Link.” to read as “Ferry shall be the principal transport mode for Ma Wan in terms of carrying capacity during the peak hours.”; ii) an electricity sub-station located to the south of the Lantau Link was rezoned from “Other Specified Uses” (“OU”) annotated “Recreation and Tourism Related Uses” zone to “Government, Institution or Community” (“G/IC”) zone to reflect the as-built condition (Amendment Item A); - during the two months of exhibition period and three weeks of publication period, a total of 15 representations and 20 comments were received respectively; (b) the major grounds of representations and the proposals of the representers as detailed in paragraphs 2.2 and 2.3 of the Paper were - 8 - summed up below: Oppose Paragraph 9.2 of the ES - majority of the representations (R1-R6 and R8-R15) opposed paragraph 9.2 due to the importance of the ferry service. The representers proposed that: i) ferry should be the principal transport mode for Ma Wan in terms of carrying capacity during day-time or without specifying the peak hours; ii) 75%:25% ratio between sea and road patronage on Ma Wan should remain unchanged or be amended to 55%:45%; iii) ferry service should be enhanced and maintained; - most of the representers (R5, R6, R8 to R9, R11, R13 and R15) also considered that there was inadequate bus service. They proposed that the restrictions on Ma Wan land transport should be lifted and relaxed, and free access of other modes of transport should be allowed; - R14 commented that the amendment had neglected an approval condition of a planning application of the Ma Wan Park regarding the submission and implementation of a comprehensive traffic and transport plan; - R14 also commented that amendment to paragraph 9.2 of the ES was not well publicized; Oppose the Draft Ma Wan OZP – Imposition of Traffic Restrictions on Ma Wan - R7 opposed the OZP against the Government’s imposition of traffic restrictions on Ma Wan through different means; Oppose the Amendment to the Plan - R14 opposed Amendment Item A as the matter was not well - 9 - publicized, related effect not clearly investigated and not enough consultation; (c) PlanD’s responses to the grounds of representations and representers’ proposals as detailed in paragraphs 4.2 of the Paper were summed up below: Paragraph 9.2 of the ES Provision of Ferry Service - in reviewing the guideline for planning transport services, the Government had taken into account the actual transport modes of residents, demands for adjustment of land and sea transport services, the anticipated future demand for transport services, the development needs and the need to contain the road traffic from Ma Wan development to the Lantau Link. Ferry service remained the principal mode of transport during peak hours; - TD would oversee the transport operator of Ma Wan in devising and implementing contingency measures for transportation of passengers during the closure of Tsing Ma Bridge. The change in transport planning guideline would not exempt the operator from discharging the obligation; - the new proposed transport planning guideline would not enable the operator to adjust the timetable of the ferry services automatically. Any service changes including operating hours and frequency of ferry services should be approved by TD; - peak hours generally covered the periods from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m, and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (from Mondays to Fridays except public holidays). In Ma Wan, most trips were made from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (from Ma Wan); and from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (to Ma Wan). As the travel pattern might change with time and other factors, it was not appropriate to rigidly define peak hours in the - 10 - guideline as requested by some representers; - the Lantau Link would have sufficient capacity to accommodate the traffic resulting from the amendment of the transport planning guideline. Nevertheless, in view of the future developments such as Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, there was a need to contain the road traffic from Ma Wan developments during peak hours; Provision of Bus Service - the new proposed transport planning guideline would enable TD to adjust the bus service more flexibly to meet the changes in population intake and related passenger demand; - according to TD’s survey, the residents’ bus services were able to cope with passenger demand in general.